Foreign Relations: Introduction

Within the Arab world, the Kingdom, which has worked tirelessly to create and enhance Arab solidarity, has persistently pursued a policy designed to resolve disputes by diplomatic means.

In its relations with the major industrialized powers (the United States of America, Western Europe and Japan), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has always recognized the economic interdependence which must exist between those who need oil and the country which holds 25% of the world's oil reserves, and has endeavored to stabilize the oil price at a level which takes account of the needs of both net producers and net consumers.

At the same time, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is part of the Arab world and, above all, has been entrusted with the guardianship of the Holy Places of Islam. Both its Arab and its Muslim heritage mean that its basic political tenets and its foreign policy objectives are sometimes not co-incident with those of other political and economic power blocs.